Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A seismic signal associated with magma flow within a volcano and consisting of low frequency seismic waves that appear on a seismogram as a line resembling a screw seen from the side.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small tree, Prosopis pubescens, native to Mexico and parts of the United States that has spirally twisted pods; the screw bean
  • noun geology A low-frequency seismic event associated with volcanoes

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun shrub or small tree of southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico having spirally twisted pods

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Spanish, little lathe, screw, screw bean, diminutive of torno, lathe, from Latin tornus; see turn.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word tornillo.

Examples

  • This is called the "tornillo" (screw), and it is a real corkscrew path, cut out of the mountain side at an angle of about 50 deg., and about 450 feet of a climb.

    Argentina from a British Point of View Various

  • Around grew _acacias, mimosas, gleditschias, robinias, algarobias_ -- all the thorny legumes of the world; above towered the splendid _fouquiera_ with spinous stem; there nourished the "tornillo" (_prosopis glandulosa_), with its twisted beans; there the "junco" (_koeblerinia_), whose very leaves are thorns.

    The War Trail The Hunt of the Wild Horse Mayne Reid 1850

  • The horned lizard (_agama cornuta_), the ground rattlesnake, the shell-covered armadillo, and the ever-present coyote, alone inhabit these dry jungles; and now and then the javali (_dicotyles torquatus_), feeding upon the twisted legumes of the "tornillo," passes through their midst; but even these are rare; and the traveller may ride for scores of miles through a Mexican chapparal without encountering aught that lives and moves.

    The War Trail The Hunt of the Wild Horse Mayne Reid 1850

  • These signals may have been related to eruptive activity (amongst others, it included the famous "tornillo" events that Galeras volcano in Colombia is notorious for).

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science Erik Klemetti none@example.com 2010

  • These signals may have been related to eruptive activity (amongst others, it included the famous "tornillo" events that Galeras volcano in Colombia is notorious for).

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science Erik Klemetti none@example.com 2010

  • These signals may have been related to eruptive activity (amongst others, it included the famous "tornillo" events that Galeras volcano in Colombia is notorious for).

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science Erik Klemetti none@example.com 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • screw

    Apretó los tornillos.

    August 25, 2008